This work focused on a case study of Kalasatama’s center tower T8. The central focus is on identifying how strong an earthquake the high-rise buildings withstand in Finland. The solution for the problem is found by calculating earthquake load and wind load for tower T8 and then comparing the stresses caused by both loading cases.

The design draws on modal response spectrum analysis and time-history analysis. Response spectrum analysis is generally faster to perform and it provides conservative results compared to the time-history analysis. In turn, one advantage of time-history analysis is that it can be adopted in non-linear analysis.

Based on the study, it can be concluded that for Kalasatama’s center tower T8, the earthquake load does not cause as high stresses as wind load. The earthquake load becomes dimensioning load case after peak ground acceleration is increased to 0,23g. Structural design point of view, such huge peak ground acceleration is not expected in Finland, especially in southern Finland.